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The gardening thread

I do, two sheds, but have no clue what a hard drive is or how to get things off one when the actual PC is fucked.
Had a great day with my mini-chainsaw, thinning out the hazels and attacking some of the ancient and enormous roses. I now have the makings of several hazel pole tripods with a heap of pea sticks...for the 26 pots of sweetpeas currently taking up space in my garden.
Final (!) seed order today - zinnias, callistephus, moroccan toadflax and rudbeckia triloba.
O, the new tomatoes are all up as well.
 
I do, two sheds, but have no clue what a hard drive is or how to get things off one when the actual PC is fucked.
Do you know anyone a bit tecchy? It would normally be a five-minute job to open up the computer, take the drive out and (assuming that's not what is fucked, and they have a drive caddy) connect it to your new computer. Then you'd hopefully just transfer the files to your new puter.

The drive caddy connects to the old disk once you've taken it out to the usb socket of your new puter - the tecchy person would know from looking at the drive what sort they'd need.

(I think :) I'm not the tecchiest of people myself).
 
I'm feeling smug after receiving seeds from campanula . Talking to a landscape gardener, I mentioned my lovely gift included some perennial Honesty seeds which I had never heard of? He told me, ' of course, they're basically perennial because they self seed' . Armed with the packet two days later and the Latin name you supplied, I left feeling like mutley. Thank you again campanula, the guy volunteers at a local public garden and has ( after looking up some he's never heard of :D) started off some other seeds which you sent. Spreading the plant love from afar as it were..
 
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Second gardening group went well today - cleared out the vegtrug and topped it up with new compost, sowed a load of veg, pricked out salad and tomatoes and potted up some cuttings. Guy who just watched last week did a bit of seed sowing this time, someone else came out to just to sit and chat in the sun and two members of staff joined in. New project worker is into gardening himself and was really excited about all the stuff from the garden we can use if covid rules let us have a bbq this summer; took some rosemary cuttings for him for his own garden. Our cleaner hadn't ever done any gardening before but she got stuck right in and I gave her some purple sprouting broccoli to take home since she hadn't tried it before. Now I just need to work out what to do with all the millions of bits of old strawberry plant I swore I wasn't going to waste my time rescuing.
I used to work in community gardening, including with people with a variety of mental health issues, and it's a real good activity for people to get involved in, whatever their ability, and a great way of gradually building confidence.

I hope it goes really well for you and those you're working with.
 
I used to work in community gardening, including with people with a variety of mental health issues, and it's a real good activity for people to get involved in, whatever their ability, and a great way of gradually building confidence.

I hope it goes really well for you and those you're working with.
Yeah, I really like that both staff and residents turn up to the group and it's a complete leveller, mostly no one has much of an idea what they're doing and staff are just there as participants like anyone else, they're not "in charge".

I'm too much of a pedantic perfectionist arsehole to do it full time but I've been really enjoying both this and working with my "assistant" (gardening client's five year old granddaughter) on Fridays. Being able to share your interest/knowledge/enjoyment of gardening and then watching it click with someone potting on plants that they sowed themself from seed, for the first time, is so fucking cool.
 
Parsnip seeds have no right to look as cool as they do.

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Achocha are even cooler/weirder!
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erm. the jasmine plant that i bought in tescos in brixton in about 2017 and which has survived and forgiven many things since has decided right now to do this. just this little bit of it. Is this fruit? Should i be worried? What is it doing.

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erm. the jasmine plant that i bought in tescos in brixton in about 2017 and which has survived and forgiven many things since has decided right now to do this. just this little bit of it. Is this fruit? Should i be worried? What is it doing.

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Jasmines rarely produce berries in the UK, but if yours does, you can try propagating it from seed. ( Taken from the rhs below).
Apparently certain ones are edible?
I've never had a jasmine produce berries. Might have something to do with living in the north east.
 
I sowed more grass seed today and have got a sprinkler on three times a day. Planted broad beans in big pots. I am ready for the ants this year. Planted climbing beans too.
Potted up peppers and chilies. I bought seed potatoes and have been planting them in troughs.

I am going to adopt a forlorn planter at work and fill it with decorative herbs and vegetables and flowers.
 
My partner wants another planter with some trellis behind it. Plus a tiered wooden planter, like a ladder sort of thing. Given the price of such stuff and the often worse than shoddy construction I am going to buy the timber and make both. Pics at some point.

This thread is as close to a gardening diary for me as I have ever had. I keep checking the dates of posts and details of what I planted. Stoned gardener I am.
 
I was looking at a small wooden greenhouse. I spluttered at the 300 quid plus prices, all sold out as well.

I will be working from home a lot soon so may make one.

This can’t be that hard?
 
all sold out as well.
Greenhouse world is completely nuts at the moment, I had a good look in Feb, phoned around even, and nothing doing unless you are up for spending 10 grand or something.
Lead time on standard greenhouses in the uk is about 30 weeks. 30 weeks! Not even joking. I think its lockdown mainly, all these brand new upstart greedy gardeners, like me. :hmm:

i got this and i love it, it totally works but when it gets warm ventilation will be a problem.


eta when i say it works, the shelves need reinforcing / planking to be functional as shelves. Apart from that its fine.
 
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Greenhouse worlsd is nuts at the moment, I had a good look in Feb, phoned around even, and nothing doing unless you are up for spending 10 grand or something mad.
Lead time on standard greenhouses in the uk is about 30 weeks. 30 weeks! Not even joking. I think its lockdown mainly.
My allotment neighbour ordered one a while ago and it isn't coming till September earliest now. She said it's lockdown orders but also something about importing the glass from the EU, apparently.
 
Ten years ago or so I bought six window frames from the auction across the road, about 6 ft by 4 ft and nobody else wanted them so I think I got them for a tenner. :thumbs: Four made perfect three sides of a greenhouse and a mate did a stone base for it with 4"x4" verticals and rough wood panels at the back. Has been superb, just what I needed. And because it's so light in there I've got most of my tools in there to do any woodworking type stuff I need.
 
For the longest time, I used cold-frames (dutch lights) and still have a large, 3bay, breezeblock one at the allotment. I just stacked 2 courses of blocks and popped 3 large windows on top. Double glazing is fine, if a bit heavy. I fastened the windows to a long timber rail, so that I can hinge the lights open and pop a couple of timber posts in little brackets, to hold the glass open. I find these lights give me a really decent result as all the plants get equal access to light, unlike trying to use tiers of shelves in a greenhouse, If space isn't really squeezed, I think coldframes are an ideal way of keeping plants alive over winter. Currently forcing my dahlia tubers and chrysanthemums into early growth for cuttings,
 
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